Benefits of space surround us. Exploration fuels innovation. Groundbreaking technologies we develop to explore space keep us close and safe right here at home.

The non-profit B612 Foundation aims to build, launch, and operate the first privately funded deep space mission—a space telescope in orbit around the Sun that will map the inner Solar System in search of asteroids that could impact Earth.

Observations of the orbits of six small objects have led researchers to propose a very large 9th planet--100s of astronomical units (AU) away from the sun. Far enough away that this Neptune-sized planet takes ~15,000 years to complete one orbit.

Solar car companies like Aptera, Lightyear and Sono all say they plan on releasing their commercial solar-assisted EVs over the next few years. These vehicles offer the prospect of less frequent plug-in charging by using the solar panels to charge the batteries. So why aren’t solar panels on all new

The European spacecraft Rosetta has become the first ever to catch up with a comet. It is a landmark step in a decade-long mission that scientists hope will help unlock some of the secrets of the solar system. Rosetta will accompany comet 67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko on its trip around the sun and land ...

Mars is a cold and barren desert today, but scientists think that in the ancient past it was warm and wet. The loss of the early Martian atmosphere may have led to this dramatic change, and one of the prime suspects is the solar wind. Unlike Earth, Mars lacks a global magnetic field to deflect the s

Launched on Feb. 11, 2010, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, is the most advanced spacecraft ever designed to study the sun. On June 5 2012, SDO collected images of the rarest predictable solar event--the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apa...

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is speeding towards Pluto for the first-ever flyby on July 14, 2015. Scientists are eager to collect data on the dwarf planet’s chemical and atmospheric makeup, and the Ralph spectrometer will do just that. Instrument scientist Dennis Reuter discusses Ralph, Pluto, and

100 million pieces of “space junk” currently orbit our planet at 17,500 miles per hour. Adrift investigates the fate of these interstellar objects, which threaten to collide with and destroy satellites and spacecraft.

Director and producer Cath Le Couteur recruited Sally Potter to narrate the fil

Scientists say there's a place in our solar system outside of Earth that has the chemical make-up to potentially support life. Researchers found that Saturn's sixth largest moon -- Enceladus -- has an ocean that contains phosphorus, which is found in human teeth, bones and DNA. CBS News space consu...